Alonzo Hawk is a recurring villain in three Walt Disney movies: The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), Son of Flubber (1963), and Herbie Rides Again (1974). In the two earlier movies (the "flubber" movies), his name is apparently Alonzo P. Hawk, while in the third movie his middle initial has become an A., but the similarities in character leave little doubt that it is the same Hawk. Portrayed in all three films by Keenan Wynn, Hawk is a greedy, underhanded banker/financier who tries to take advantage of the films' protagonists, usually by financial leverage. Invariably, however, Hawk gets his comeuppance by the end of the story.
Keenan Wynn also played similar characters in two other Disney films. In Snowball Express (1972) he was shadey banker Martin Ridgeway. While in The Shaggy D.A. (1976) he was John Slade, who shares many similarities with the first appearance of Hawk in The Absent-Minded Professor. It is unclear why the latter did not reuse the Hawk name since Wynn is clearly playing the same character.
A Hawk inspired character appeared one last time in a Disney film with the animated pilot Fluppy Dogs (1986) as rich and greedy rare animal collector J.J. Wagstaff. Again, it is unclear why Hawk was just not reused.
In Flubber, a remake of The Absent-Minded Professor, Hawk is replaced by the character of Chester Hoenicker (played by Raymond J. Barry) as the film's main antagonist.
Famous quotes containing the word hawk:
“And Coleridge, too, has lately taken wing,
But like a hawk encumber’d with his hood,—
Explaining Metaphysics to the nation—
I wish he would explain his Explanation.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)